Bow's boy

In 1960s Laroque, a gritty Wisconsin town, Ginger Piper is a high school basketball star who carries himself with unusual composure and eloquence. G. Bowman Epps, a wealthy, solitary, middle-aged attorney, sees something rare in him. Bow is a local figure of legend, marked by a scarred face, a sharp mind, a stern manner, and an inherited fortune. He appears to belong to an earlier era, much like the crumbling, abandoned opera house that stands as a reminder of the town's former glory.

Bow looks past the athlete and recognizes a future trial lawyer who could carry on his own reputation for pioneering courtroom work. He offers Ginger a summer apprenticeship at his meticulously run practice, and the offer grows into an unlikely friendship. The arrangement is tested when Ginger is charged with a shocking crime that alters how the town views him. Bow finds himself drawn into the case, and he must decide whether to trust his rigid sense of logic or his loyalty to the boy.

The events unfold as the first painful effects of the Vietnam War reach American households, and a country struggles to make sense of a war unlike any before it. The conflict splits the younger and older generations at home, and political tensions soon mix with private lives. Charlie Stuart, Bow's investigator, tells the story from thirty years later. His memories of a volatile father and his awkward courtship of a young woman in town shape his account.

At its center is a gripping mystery, but the novel is also concerned with greatness, heroism, loyalty, and justice, and with the grief and comfort that family can bring.